Yes, again and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel.
Parallel translations
- WEB They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
- KJV Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
- BSB Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
- NASB Again and again they tempted God, And pained the Holy One of Israel.
- NLT Again and again they tested God’s patience and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They repeatedly tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel. Their rebellion was a recurring pattern.
Overview
'They turned again and tempted God,' provoking 'the Holy One of Israel.' The title stresses God's holiness, against which their sin was an affront. Their relapsing rebellion reveals the bondage of the sinful heart and the necessity of the inward renewal that only grace can bring.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Num 14:22because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice;
- Heb 3:8–11don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness,
- Acts 7:39to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,
- Deut 6:16You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah.
- Ps 78:19–20Yes, they spoke against God. They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
- Num 14:4They said to one another, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.”
- 2 Pet 2:21–22For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
- 2 Kgs 19:22Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!
- Mark 5:35–36While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue ruler’s house saying, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?”
- Ps 89:18For our shield belongs to Yahweh; our king to the Holy One of Israel.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 78:41 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.